![]() |
SUBSIM: The Web's #1 resource for all submarine & naval simulations since 1997 |
![]() |
#1 |
Ocean Warrior
![]() Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Notify command we have entered the Grass Sea
Posts: 2,822
Downloads: 813
Uploads: 0
|
![]()
Nimitz asks, "The world wonders where Rockin Robbins is?"
[His last post was 10-04-2010.] above quote adapted from Wikipeidia's summary of the Battle of Leyete Gulf set forth below: From 3,000 mi (4,800 km) away in Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz had been monitoring the desperate calls from Taffy 3, and sent Halsey a terse message: "TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS." The first four words and the last three were "padding" used to confuse enemy cryptanalysis (the beginning and end of the true message was marked by double consonants). The communications staff on Halsey's flagship correctly deleted the first section of padding but mistakenly retained the last three words in the message finally handed to Halsey. The last three words, probably selected by a communications officer at Nimitz's headquarters, may have been meant as a loose quote from Tennyson's poem on "The Charge of the Light Brigade", suggested by the coincidence that this day, 25 October, was the ninetieth anniversary of the Battle of Balaclava – and was not intended as a commentary on the current crisis off Leyte. Halsey, however, when reading the message, thought that the last words — ‘THE WORLD WONDERS’ — were a biting piece of criticism from Nimitz, threw his cap to the deck and broke into "sobs of rage". Rear Admiral Robert Carney, his Chief of Staff, confronted him, telling Halsey "Stop it! What the hell's the matter with you? Pull yourself together." Last edited by I'm goin' down; 11-26-10 at 02:34 PM. Reason: added wikipedia quote |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|